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Hi! I'm Robey, but you might remember me from such best-selling miniatures games as Horizon Wars and... er... Well, anyway.

A couple of years ago, Macrocosm Miniatures ran a moderately successful Kickstarter to launch a range of globular, floating monsters. But although they continued to sell moderately well, Chris at Macrocosm was distracted by more successful projects and decided to sell a load of his stuff off, including the Ballmonsters.

Chris and I had already been collaborating on developing a supporting game for the Balllmonsters, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and take the opportunity to get my hands on his amazing balls. It is fair to say I now have Chris's balls in my hands. And here's the photographic evidence!



I have just today put them up on the brand new Precinct Omega website for sale. The Ballmonsters! game - best thought of as trying to play billiards whilst on an acid trip - is still being fine-tuned, but you can find beta rules on the Ballmonsters Facebook page.

My aspiration for Precinct Omega is a range of games aimed at the budget end of the market. I want to put the best-quality of game experience into people's hands without breaking their banks. Horizon Wars was built on this principle and we very much hope to do the same for Ballmonsters! and for the other games we have planned for the next couple of years.

What size are these guys? Would they look good as replacement heads for chaos warriors and chaos marines? Or are they too large for that?

Well, these ones are essay to large for that unless you wanted them to look like bobbleheads.

But there are also microballs in the range that might suit your needs. I'd honestly never considered it, so if I have time, I'll do the experiment!

R.

This would make a sweet Chaos Knight head.

Well, that's a 32mm plastic hex base it's on, so that would be one bobble-headed knight.

 precinctomega wrote:
Well, that's a 32mm plastic hex base it's on, so that would be one bobble-headed knight.

I think he means the giant robots and not the horsy riders.

Oh, right! All makes sense, now. Yes, it probably would at that. It looks like Sir Blinksalot might be my first product to need re-casting at this rate.

Glad to see these get a new home as they are really characterful, unique looking minis and are a joy to paint, Chris sent me a message saying i was partially responsible for the funding and success of the campaign and thanked me as i posted it everywhere i could, in about 12 forums, 8-10 FB groups and about 10 G+ groups and kept them all up to date each day.

The pics of all the Balls except the Monster Balls, all have the top of their heads cut off in the photos in your webstore!

Do you have plans for any new Balls and did you buy the full range? as i dont see the accessories, legged, undead, hairy, deflated, micro and a few of the other "normal" Balls on your webstore, there was 66 individual sculpts(unless i counted mine wrong)!

Those of you who are asking the average size of the Balls are about @20mm in size except the 2 giant Balls which are @50mm, 5 or 6 Balls are @25mm and micro-Balls are @10mm, the Balls are a good proxy for Squigs

Sir Blinksalot is the star of the show in my opinion. I have no idea what I’d use them for except normal marine heads which they are too big for unless I do Jack in the Box chaos marines.

The website needs help, a clear cart and smaller pics with something to scale them with would do wonders.


If I could get seated legs to fit on these I think I may have found replacement ideas for chaos marine bikes. Use them as pogoballs that the chaos marines can bounce around smacking the out of the emperors finest.

Please for all that is unsacred we need scale shots .

Ordered a couple of blinkalot, looks like the most promising for working with.

The store pics all seem cut off at the top, and the thumbnail pic could do with being a full shot rather than detail, annoying to click in to see what it actually is - but I was browsing on tablet, so that may not have helped.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Not sure what must be going on with the photos. I checked it on several devices and they seemed fine. However, the website is a work in progress. I hadn't considered scale shots, as I had assumed the classic flight base would be so well known, the scale would be obvious, but it just goes to show that assumption is a trap.

I will bin the detail shots for full head shots and add something to help with scale illustration over the next couple of weeks.

On the plus side, monkeytroll's order came through fine and is ready to ship tomorrow morning!

Couple of scale shots for those interested:


Marine and cultist


Heads - maulerfiend, armiger and trygon

Nice clean piece, only clean-up that it's had is literally snapping off two gates - that'll obviously need a quick file, and there's a tiny mould line/slippage mark at just one end of the jaw that will take seconds to clean up:


No idea what I'll do with it yet - probably something involving tentacles. Definitely interested if there is a smaller version as suggested by the term micro-balls

Thanks Monkeytroll, the scale shot is what I needed. Unfortunately too large for my purposes, but really cool looking.

Many thanks to Monkeytroll for the scale shot. I'll be spending several hours of my weekend re-taking all the shop photos to make them more mobile-friendly and providing scale pictures.

Worth noting that the balls come in four sizes, though, and Sir Blinksalot is the second-largest. The sizes are:

Colossal Balls
Monsterballs
Miniballs
Microballs

New photos will help you see exactly what size each set is. In the mean time, to those of you asking about the game:

https://www.precinctomega.co.uk/blog/where-s-the-game

It's hard to get this stuff done quickly when you have a day job and a family, but I'm gradually getting up better photos and new products whilst also pushing ahead with the game itself.

By way of example, here are some pics of the new Hairballs!



Hopefully, by centering the ball in the image, these will be more mobile friendly. I will be doing scale shots once I've got all the basic photos replaced.

Latest version of the rules is almost ready for public release. I just have to do some illustrations and graphics to support the beta, which will, of course, be a free release.

Just had a quick look on my tablet, and the newer photos are much clearer, both in the main menu and once opened.

Do you have some Diabolical game in the works to go with these balls?

Reminds me of a toy I had when i was a kid..... the name escapes my at the moment though. There was a whole line of them.

Ugly Balls! (:
https://www.bustle.com/articles/88669-6-commercials-from-the-80s-that-were-actually-terrifying-and-will-probably-haunt-your-dreams-tonight

Also looking forward to checking out the rules!

There will be rules for playing with our balls?

precinctomega wrote: take the opportunity to get my hands on his amazing balls. It is fair to say I now have Chris's balls in my hands.

Okay, that was intended.

precinctomega wrote:
Colossal Balls
Monsterballs
Miniballs
Microballs

Easy E wrote:Do you have some Diabolical game in the works to go with these balls?

Nostromodamus wrote:There will be rules for playing with our balls?

Here... I'm not quite sure. Yes, I'm a simple man sometimes... but... thank you.

Sorry to keep folks waiting, but if you'd like the latest instructions on how to get the most out of playing with your balls, then you can download our beta rules for Ballmonsters!

https://www.precinctomega.co.uk/downloads

And yes, @Dryaktylus, that was definitely intended.

For anyone in the UK, I'm going to be hitting the road with Ballmonsters throughout 2019, and trying to reach as many local wargaming conventions as possible.

I have a good quote to start getting playmats manufactured at a nice balance of cost and quality, but I'll also put up a free download to have your own made if you want to.

Regards,

Robey

Pretty cheeky going out to conventions and showing off your balls. Better watch out where you whip them out some places have a problem with people playing with their balls by themselves and prefer group play.

 precinctomega wrote:
For anyone in the UK, I'm going to be hitting the road with Ballmonsters throughout 2019, and trying to reach as many local wargaming conventions as possible.

Do you plan on attending Salute or UKGE?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but any word on your Zero dark rule set that you were working on, I was eagerly awaiting the release but haven’t heard anything in some time.

@Theophony - Iknorite? But to those people I say: when you see the size of my Colossal Balls, you'll be glad you saw them!

@Original Timmy - Probably not trading at Salute as it clashes with other commitments. But I will be at UKGE in a subordinate capacity. I'm treating 2019 as my learning year, providing support services (lifting, carrying, taking cash and "dealing" with problem customers) at events in return for a small amount of sale space. Watch this space!

Currently, I will be at PAW, and expect to be at Chillcon, WMMS, UKGE and Partizan. Other events are being looked at.

@spartan059 - Yes! One of the reasons I went in and bought Ballmonsters in the first place was because I couldn't afford to release Zero Dark in the form I wanted to (I reckoned on needing capital of about £10k to do it justice). I have a two-year business plan that's underway and the end point is the release of Zero Dark as a full-colour, hardback, lavishly-illustrated rule book and worthy bookshelf companion to Horizon Wars.

I realize that saying "if you want Zero Dark, buy Ballmonsters" is a bit of a weird sales pitch, given that the games are radically different. But my hope is that I will attract people who aren't necessarily invested in any particular world or game, but who want the kind of cost-efficient replayability and aesthetic freedom that I delivered in Horizon Wars across a range of games. Ballmonsters is now very much a "Precinct Omega" game, aiming to be accessible for all sizes of wallet and every level of hobby enthusiasm. Just like HW and just like ZD will eventually be...

R.

Spoilered for reasons (Johnny Dangerously movie clip), somewhat on target not safe around really young kids.

Thanks for that, Theo, I think!

In other Ballmonsters news, I've put up the version1 playmat for sale:



https://www.precinctomega.co.uk/product-page/ballmonsters-playmat-version-1

Also for sale are packs of d12s to support the game. Because it can't be a Precinct Omega game if it doesn't involve twelve-sided dice! d12s are also compatible with Horizon Wars.

R.

 precinctomega wrote:


@Original Timmy - Probably not trading at Salute as it clashes with other commitments. But I will be at UKGE in a subordinate capacity. I'm treating 2019 as my learning year, providing support services (lifting, carrying, taking cash and "dealing" with problem customers) at events in return for a small amount of sale space. Watch this space!

Currently, I will be at PAW, and expect to be at Chillcon, WMMS, UKGE and Partizan. Other events are being looked at.

Cool, one day il attend a Partizan show as that looks quite interesting, theres a little show in Norwich called Diceni that might be of interest if your localish. Il probably catch up with you at UKGE, speaking of which did you purchase the 2x2 Ball Monster game board Chris had made for UKGE participation games? that would make an excellent scan for a game mat!

On a side note here is one of the Monster Balls i painted up some time ago, you might have seen it in the old Ball Monster FB group, if not here it is

The Colossal Balls!

Yes, I've re-christened them "Ball Lords" and, for the moment, they have no role in the game, but I've got plans for them nevertheless...

R.

I glanced at the rule and they seem good fun.

I think it would be great to add an advanced rules section where you add 'terrain" items that you can bounce off of during your shot!